Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
13 OCTOBER 2016

YOU CAN’T LIVE IN A CONSENT MINISTER – NOT EVEN IN AUCKLAND

New Zealand First says it is time for the Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith to go back to studying landslides as he is about to be enveloped by one.

“What Joseph Heller once said describes Minister Nick Smith – ‘some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them’,” says Mr Peters.

“This government’s and this Minister’s flummery is no longer acceptable because not even in Auckland can you take up residence in a consent.

“In Auckland last year, 9,251 consents were approved but only 5,073 dwellings were completed. Given these completions included 5016 houses, it means only 57 apartments were built.

“So much for the Prime Minister telling young people to buy an apartment.

“The government could release Code Compliance Certificate (CCC’s) statistics tomorrow because councils collect them. Despite being the best guide to completions the government strangely doesn’t ask for them.

“If the government cared one iota for measuring policy delivery then they’d report consent data hand-in-hand with Code Compliance Certificate data. But that comes back to a Minister who is out of depth and out of time,” says Mr Peters.

BUILDING CONSENTS V CODE COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATES IN AUCKLAND

Auckland Council* - includes former councils and CCC's issued from previous years (see LGOIMA 30/8/16).

Sources: Auckland Council and StatsNZ Infoshare

ENDS

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